{"id":367301,"date":"2025-12-24T09:55:28","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T09:55:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/367301\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T09:55:28","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T09:55:28","slug":"trump-administration-intervenes-in-potter-valley-dam-removal-as-department-of-agriculture-asks-ferc-to-halt-decommissioning-process-lost-coast-outpost","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/367301\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump Administration Intervenes in Potter Valley Dam Removal, as Department of Agriculture Asks FERC to Halt Decommissioning Process | Lost Coast Outpost"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Cape Horn Dam. Photo: PG&E.<\/p>\n

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The two broken dams on the Upper Eel River found a powerful champion this morning, after the United States Department of Agriculture filed a motion to intervene in Federal Energy Regulatory Commission proceedings that would see them removed.<\/p>\n

The department\u2019s filings today follow Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins\u2019s letter to the editor published in the Mendocino Voice last week<\/a>, in which Rollins told Potter Valley farming interests that they were \u201cnot alone in this righteous fight, which strikes at the very heart of our freedoms.\u201d<\/p>\n

The dams \u2014 together known as the \u201cPotter Valley Project,\u201d and owned by Pacific Gas and Electric \u2014 have been unable to generate power for many years, which is the purpose they were built for a century ago.<\/p>\n

In the last few years, Rep. Jared Huffman has led efforts to form a compromise \u201ctwo-basin solution<\/a>\u201d that would allow for continued diversion of water from the Eel to the Russian River, supporting agriculture and population in Mendocino and Sonoma counties.<\/p>\n

When that was completed \u2014 and after local tribes, environmental organizations, Humboldt County <\/a>and the principal water agencies in both Mendocino and Sonoma all signed on \u2014 PG&E\u00a0officially filed a decommissioning plan with FERC in July 2025<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But chapters of the Farm Bureau in communities along the Russian River have stood in dissent, and have communicated their displeasure to the Trump Administration<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 as has\u00a0the government of Lake County<\/a>, which is home to Lake Pillsbury, the reservoir behind one of the dams.<\/p>\n

Now, with the official intervention of the Department of Agriculture, it appears their pleas have been heard. Writing for the department, Tucker A. Stewart, senior advisor to Secretary Rollins, argues on a number of fronts that FERC should deny PG&E\u2019s application to remove the dams, at least in its current form.<\/p>\n

Though the department\u2019s principal concern appears to be protecting farmers and ranchers, especially those in the Potter Valley region. But it also makes a number of arguments about the decommissioning plan\u2019s effects on firefighting, recreational opportunities and reforestation. (Read the full letter here<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

Stewart concludes:<\/p>\n

It is abundantly clear that PG&E\u2019s application fails to consider appropriately the elimination of
\nwater supply to local communities without viable alternatives; the negative impact that removal
\nwill have on downstream communities and agricultural producers; and the diminished capacity
\nfor wildland firefighting in one of the most fire-prone regions of the country. Unless and until
\nPG&E addresses the aforementioned issues included in these comments, the Department
\nrespectfully requests that the Commission reject PG&E\u2019s application to surrender its FERC
\nlicense for Potter Valley Project dam because of the profoundly negative and irreversible impact
\non local farmers, ranchers, agricultural producers, communities, and USDA equities.<\/p>\n

Reached this afternoon, Scott Greacen, conservation director for Friends of the Eel, told the Outpost\u00a0that the department\u2019s ask of FERC appears to be to force PG&E to continue to maintain the dams \u2014 an option he argued was forbidden under federal law.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Federal Power Act expressly forecloses that at as an option,\u201d Greacen said.<\/p>\n

Back in September, when Rollins first started tweeting about the Potter Valley Project, Rep. Huffman, in an interview with the <\/a>Outpost<\/a>,\u00a0argued that political intervention in the proceedings would only harm the people the administration was attempting to help.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you have the ability to order federal agencies to do things for purely political reasons, you can definitely slow things down,\u201d Huffman said. \u201cThat\u2019s my sense of what this means. And, you know, who\u2019s hurt the most by that? Ironically, it\u2019s the people in Potter Valley and in the Russian River Basin, because it delays the water supply solution that is the only way their needs are going to be met.\u201d<\/p>\n

DOCUMENTS:<\/p>\n

PREVIOUSLY:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Cape Horn Dam. Photo: PG&E. ### The two broken dams on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367302,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-367301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367301\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367302"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}